


Running Stitch

by polandspringz



Series: Designing in Devildom [3]
Category: Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: Body Image, F/M, Gen, Harassment, Hurt/Comfort, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:42:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27275890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polandspringz/pseuds/polandspringz
Summary: After making their pact, Beel and Poland begin to workout together to get to know each other more. Beel can tell that something is bothering Poland, but it doesn't come to light until some jerks decided to catcall her.Part 3 of my MC, Poland, as she survives Devildom.
Relationships: Asmodeus & Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Beelzebub & Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Beelzebub/Main Character (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)
Series: Designing in Devildom [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1864159
Comments: 3
Kudos: 40





	Running Stitch

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still very shocked at the response to my series about my MC! I'm happy to see so many people actually reading it. This wasn't supposed to be the next installment, but I had this idea at 2 am and needed to write it as soon as possible! I hope you enjoy, but I apologize in advance for any mistakes! I haven't been able to get a betareader for my Obey Me works recently.

“Are you sure you’re comfortable, Poland? You might get hot pretty quickly,” Beel said as he looked down at the human exchange student as she jumped off the stairs and met him at the front door. She was currently dressed in oversized sweats and bulky sneakers. The sneakers were fine, Asmo had mentioned something about them becoming a big fashion in the human realm recently, although Beel himself didn’t quite understand it, but Poland looked completely out of her element right now.

Usually she was dressed up in elaborate outfits that she stitched together herself or had just purchased from another shopping run with Asmo and Mammon _,_ but right now the only thing recognizable from her usual get-up was the brightly colored wig she had stuffed all of her natural hair underneath and the makeup caking her face. Normally, Beel thought she looked quite pretty, and he was no makeup expert either, but today he could tell there was an obvious amount of rush and panic put into her appearance. She was dressed down yet still dressing up, and there was something _off_ and wrong about it.

“I’ll be fine, Beel. This is how I normally dress when I work out in the human world.”

“Okay, but it’s hotter in Devildom, you know. More so than the human world. You might feel worse when you’re running.”

“Yeah, but there’s no sun, so the heat is more bearable here. I’ll be fine, I promise. Now come on. We better start running,” Poland pushed open the front door and stepped down onto the porch.

Even her smile looked strained. Beel decided not to press it. He merely pursed his lips into a frown and followed her out the door.

* * *

Only ten minutes into their run and Poland was already regretting her decisions. She was already barely jogging behind Beel, who was insanely fast with his longer leg and strides, and she was already feeling the wig around her head squeeze her brain and cause a headache. _At least there's no sun,_ she mused, _or else I’d probably pass out from it hitting my eyes._

“Poland, are you doing okay?” Beel asked, slowing so he was running in place as he pulled one of his earbuds out. She leaned over her knees for a moment and held up one finger to say _give me a minute_ before she sucked in a few deep breaths of air. She straightened up with some light slaps to her cheeks to give her face a stronger rush of blood. She tried not to outwardly cringe as she felt the sweaty mixture of the makeup cling to her hands as she pulled away. Ugh, great. Her mascara was probably running like crazy too.

“Yup! Sorry about that Beel! Let’s keep going! I was just surprised by how fast you are!”

“Are you sure? We can stop and take a break if-”

“No! We’re going!”

Beel stopped to watch her jog down the sidewalk, her blue ponytail swishing behind her as she passed.

* * *

After nearly collapsing on her face, Poland conceded and took her sweatshirt off. She wrapped it around her waist as she continued to jog, reaching down every so often to tug it back into place whenever the sleeves began to shift to the front of her body.

They slowed down eventually when Beel’s phone beeped, signalling for them to slow down a bit. Not wanting to be out done though, Poland only slowed to speedwalk, letting herself finally get a few feet ahead of Beel.

Unfortunately, the moment there was a decent distance between them was when some idiot decided to howl at her.

“Hey, that’s pretty looking human over there, right?”

A whistle cut through the air. A car driving the other direction slowed down to cruise and roll the window down so they could gape at Poland. Some punks leaned out the car to get a better look.

“Damn? Is that a human? She looks too pretty to eat. We should have some fun with her instead.”

Poland walked faster.

Beel watched the car in the middle of the street do a U-turn, nearly running _him_ over as it awkwardly rolled the front too far onto the sidewalk before it turned around and pulled up beside Poland. He took his headphones out and hurried to catch up.

“Let me get a better look at you, human.”

“Yeesh, look at that face! From afar I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, but look at that face! It’s all furrowed and ugly. What a waste.”

“You should smile more! Maybe that would help that ugly face brighten up.”

“Up close, it’s way too fat to eat either! We’d probably choke on it before we got our fill!”

Poland was practically sprinting at this point, but the car was speeding up to chase her.

“Why are you running? Don’t you want to join us? You may not be much to look at, but we’ll give you a good time nonetheless. Better than anything you could get in the human realm.”

One of them opened their mouth to make a comment, but glanced towards the back of the car.

“Hey, are you scared of that guy? Well, don’t worry! Just hop in and you’ll be safe with us-”

One of the lecherous demons reached out and grabbed Poland’s shoulder, and Beel saw her whip around with panic and fear as she tried to shrug their hands off. But, before they could get another hand on her, Beel was grabbing the back of the car, and hoisting it into the air.

“What?! What’s happening?!”

_“Don’t touch her,”_ Beel growled, holding the car over his head before he arched back, and then _chucked_ the vehicle down the street, sending it flying and spinning into a heap of scrap metal. Poland gasped and a hand flew up to cover her mouth, but Beel put an arm in front of her to stop her from running forward, “Don’t worry. They’re not dead. They’re demons, they’re about as resilient as me. But, you shouldn’t be caring about them right now.”

Poland said nothing, but wrapped her arms around herself. Beel touched her shoulder gently, and then noticed her sweatshirt had fallen a few feet back when she had been running away. He went back to get it, and held it out to her.

“Are you cold?” He asked. She shook her head, but took the sweatshirt and tugged it back over her head. She pulled the hood up and stuffed her hands into the front pocket, turning herself into a heathered gray blob as she curled in on herself.

“Here,” Beel said, carefully guiding her with the lightest touch on her back, “Follow me this way. I know a place we can stop and rest.”

* * *

Beel bought two water bottles from a vending machine and brought them over to the bench Poland was sitting on. He held one out to her, shaking it a little when she didn’t notice right away. That hood blocked her view of him, and his view of her, and Beel wished she would take it off so he could see on her face how she was feeling.

“Here,” he said, and she finally looked up enough that he could see one green eye peeking around the fleece of the light gray hood. She brought both hands up to carefully cup and take it, but only held it in her hands as she returned to staring straight ahead.

There was enough space on the bench for Beel to sit, but instead, he crouched down on the ground next to it, and cracked open the bottle. A few minutes passed before he tried to say anything again.

“Are you alright?”

“I don’t know, Beel,” she bristled, as she finally twisted the cap off the bottle to crack it open. It was as if she was snapping a neck, “I was already feeling pretty shitty, but then I got catcalled and almost kidnapped, so I would say I reserve the right to be upset.”

Beel’s heart sank, and he turned to stare at a crack in the sidewalk in front of him.

“I’m sorry I didn’t stop them sooner. I didn’t know what was happening right away.”

Poland sat up and frantically waved her hands in front of herself, “No! No! No! It’s not your fault at all, Beel. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that I’m just…”

She sighed, and reached up to play with the peak of her hood, pulling it further over her face. Beel could faintly see the tangled, blue wig that was getting crooked underneath it.

“I’m sorry.”

“There’s nothing to be sorry about. You didn’t do anything wrong,” Beel took another swig of his water, “I’ve… heard about catcalling but, I’ve never really seen it done before. It doesn’t happen to guys that much, I guess. Or at least I haven’t experienced it. Back when Lilith was alive, we were all in heaven so, none of the angels ever dared to do something like that.”

“Yeah well, normally it isn’t that bad,” She said, “Not to negate the fact that it’s always a shitty move and makes you feel shitty, but I guess demons are more physical and forceful about it. At least they’re bolder than the average human would be.”

“Why are you feeling ‘shitty’?” He asked. Poland sat up when she heard her curse come out his mouth, “You said that you were feeling bad before this happened. Did you not want to go running?”

“No, no-” she started to say again, trying to dismiss him, but Beel stood up to his full height with a groan, and cut her off. He swung his foot around to pivot and face her, towering over her, but the concern in his eyes outweighed any terror she would feel about his enormous presence.

“Please, tell me what’s wrong. I _know_ there’s something wrong, but I won’t know exactly what until you _tell me._ I consider myself good at reading emotions but… not necessarily the best at understanding them unless someone spells it out for me.”

“Beel…” Poland swayed into his outstretched hand and let him gently remove her hood. Underneath, her wig was a mess, and her makeup was almost all melted off. Beel smudged his thumb against her cheek, removing some of the black stain and foundation that had merged together with the sweat, and Poland exhaled and pressed into his palm. She was very hot, and needed to drink more water, but he wanted to hear what she had to say first.

“You should probably take that wig off,” was all he said before going quiet again. She sighed and reached up, prying the thing off her head before setting it in her lap. She turned away from him as she began to remove the cap and each individual pin that was holding up her natural hair.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go running with you… It’s just… I feel uncomfortable working out in front of guys.”

She clipped each pin onto the collar of her sweatshirt, piling them up for safekeeping as she spoke.

“It’s ridiculous, but realistically I know not every guy is attracted to me, but… I’m very self conscious, and maybe it’s just because of how women’s bodies are viewed in the human realm- _I should know I work in a branch of the beauty industry for goodness sake-_ but I’ve never been able to separate this idea that people are always looking at _me._ It’s narcissistic, I know, but in my mind they’re looking at me for both good and bad reasons always. And then, since I get so caught up in my head, I invent reasons and thoughts for what they’re thinking about me.”

“Is that why you dressed like this today?”

“Yup,” she pulled the last pin out of her hair and then began to undo the tangled up braids. Her normally curly brown hair fell in sharp, crimped waves that shimmered with sweat and oil, “Working out is the worst, because ideally clothing is more tight fitting and comfortable, but in front of guys my brain goes into overdrive and I’m always thinking they’re staring at my body even more than usual. But, I hate it if I _don’t_ look nice, because that makes me feel worse still, so I tried to compromise and wear clothes that would hide my body but I _hate_ wearing sweats because they just feel so frumpy and lazy in public. So, I panicked and worked extra hard on my face, but because I was panicking so bad I overdid it and then I was running out time to fix it so I just came downstairs and-” exasperated she dropped her palm on the bench with another sigh, “Here we are.”

Beel nodded at all of this, “What do you like wearing when you work out? You always seemed so dressed up, so I was a bit surprised when you came downstairs dressed…”

“What? Normal?” She laughed at that, and it brightened Beel up a bit, even if her voice was getting raspy, “Yeah, my preferred workout wardrobe isn’t suitable for running. Truthfully, I’ve always been more of a dancer.”

“Really?” Beel leaned in with surprise.

“Yeah,” she leaned back on her hands and extended her legs out in front of her, pointing her feet and then rolling her ankles a bit, “I’m nothing spectacular. No prima ballerina or anything. I started pretty late in life to become anything great like that. My ankles are too weak and terrible for pointe even. I get tired standing on my own feet pretty quickly even! But, I’ve always loved buying and wearing dancewear. I still haven’t decided on what I’m going to design when I really break into the industry, but I’ve thought about making a collection dedicated to it a few times.”

“What type of dance did you do?” Beel asked. He sat down when Poland patted the bench, and was now shoulder to shoulder with her. He liked this better. He could observe her better. He was happy to see she was talking, but her skin looked a little pale. He would have to get her to drink some more water soon.

“Oh, all types. I did ballet, but when I first started I did lyrical, jazz, and hip-hop. I had to switch studios though, and that was when I started ballet. I kept up with the hip-hop and jazz, but added tap and acrobatics to the list.”

“Acrobatics?”

“Yeah! I actually did gymnastics for one year too, until I sprained my arm after failing my first attempt at the parallel bars. I was always good at the tumbling stuff though, and so acro is just that but with dance incorporated. Honestly, most of our recital dances were kind of cheesy, but it was fun getting better at handsprings and cartwheels. I’ll have to show you sometime. Oh! And I can technically break dance! Only one move though,” she smiled, “I always dreamed of being able to do cool stuff like that too, but like I said, I started too late.”

He nodded again, “I’ll be looking forward to it. But, Poland, how are you feeling? You should probably drink more water.”

“Yeah. I do have a headache from the wig, but that’s my own fault. I should probably drink some water, now, right?”

“Right,” Beel said, looking her in the eye. Her eyes were glassy as she held the bottle up, but didn’t make any move to unscrew the cap.

She squinted at it, “Right?”

“Right,” Beel nodded again, then, “Are you okay?”

“I… I am a little dizzy?” She confessed, “Did I drink the water yet?”

“Alright, that’s it, up we go,” Beel said, standing up and scooping Poland into his arms, “I’m running us back home. Lucifer will be able to take care of this.”

“What? Beel, no! I’ll be fine, and besides don’t carry me, I’m too heavy-”

“Don’t care, just focus on taking a sip of the water before I start moving,” he unscrewed the bottle and helped her drink it before he chucked both of the bottles into the nearby trash, “Alright, we’re going.”

“Wait, Beel! The wig! We dropped it!”

“I’m not going back to get it. I’m sure Asmo can buy you a new one.”

“No! Go back or I’m jumping out of your arms and getting it myself.”

Beel sighed and retraced the few steps, leaning down so Poland could fish the wig up.

“I doubt you would be able to do that in this state, but fine. Alright, we’re going now.”

* * *

“Hey, Asmo,” Beel asked a few hours later, after his older brother had emerged from his room, “do you know anywhere I could buy dancewear?”

“Dancewear? Why do you ask?”

“Poland mentioned she preferred exercising in dancewear, but when I went through her clothes to find something you could change her into, I couldn’t find anything that resembled that. If she _wants_ to work out with me again, I want her to feel comfortable.”

Asmodeus regarded his Beel as he looked away and rubbed his hands together nervously.

“I mean, I know tons of stores that sell apparel like that, but Beel, she sews, so wouldn’t she rather make something like that for herself?”

“She did say she wanted to design something like it, but I don’t know if she meant for herself.”

“I only said that because there have been a lot of times where I’ll offer to buy her something but she says she can just make it herself. I’ve yet to figure out if she’s being honest or if she’s maybe just concerned about the price of the items I’m offering.”

Beel looked up at that, “I think it’s the price. She’s always been a bit… different about money since the _incident.”_

Asmodeus nodded. The _incident_ being when they all realized that they had been depriving her of basic necessities when she first arrived. Although, Lucifer really was the one to blame for that, as he had been the most intimidating presence and the one holding an iron grip on her finances until that happened. Now, he practically showered her with money as much as Mammon wished he would be.

“If that’s the case, then we could probably buy her a few nice things and she wouldn’t complain. I especially don’t think she would refuse if they came from _you,_ Beel. She seems the most at ease around you and Mammon. She probably would have been fighting me if she was more cognizant when I took care of her just now.”

“Well, that’s because you’re always so flirtatious with her, Asmo,” Beel said, but then his face scrunched up a bit as a thought passed through his mind, “You might want to actually tone that down a bit. It might actually be making her seriously uncomfortable.”

“Really? What makes you say that?”

“I’m being honest, Asmo. Trust me.”

The pink haired demon studied the look in his younger brother’s eye before he relented, “Alright, if you say so. But, I can help you pick out some dancewear for her right now. Just let me get my laptop. Oh, and while we’re at it, I might have another idea…”

* * *

“Asmo, where are you taking me?” Poland shouted as she was tugged along the sidewalk. She had barely time to slip her sneakers on over her pink footed tights as Asmo was so insistent on dragging her out the door. She had gotten home from R.A.D. only for him to toss her into his room and subject her to a complete makeover, forcing her into a leotard she barely had any chance to get a good look at before he threw an oversized sweater over her form.

She was a bit suspicious about the outfit he had selected, as it had only been a week since the conversation with Beel, but decided to keep quiet. There wasn’t much she could say right now as Asmo yanked her up the stairs of some small building in the middle of the downtown street of Devildom. He flung open the door and pulled her inside, the duffle bag around his arm dropping to the ground as he dug through it to produce a pair of-

_Ballet slippers?_

“Ta-da!” Asmo pronounced as he held them up in front of her face, “I checked your sizing and everything. They should fit perfectly. Now, take your shoes off, and get inside the studio already!”

_The studio?_

She glanced around the foyer of the seemingly empty building as Asmo dropped to his knees and wrestled her feet out of the sneakers and into the dance shoes while she remained distracted. There wasn’t anything to lace up, so he managed it pretty easily. Poland was too busy straining to hear the soft music coming from one of the rooms down the hall, which Asmo wasted no time pushing her towards.

“Go inside, go inside! And don’t forget to take your sweater off! I’ll be in to see the beautiful outfit in a minute!”

Poland slid onto the laminated wood of the ballroom flooring with as much ease as one could manage in new ballet slippers that hadn’t been broken in, and momentarily was blinded by the lights reflecting off all the mirrors before she managed to focus on the other figure in the room, stretching on the floor.

It was Beel. Of course, she had sort of expected to see him based on what Asmo had dressed her in, but what she hadn’t expected was him to be dressed in _full, male ballerina garb._

_“Oh. My. God.”_

Beel lifted his head and grinned, “Poland!”

“Was this all your planning? Cause of our conversation before?”

“Maybe?” He gave her a big, toothy smile as she walked forward and tussled his hair. He leaned into her touch and felt warm when he thought about how she had glided across the room elegantly in just those moments to reach him. Just by being here, on the dancefloor, she was already back in her element. Beel could tell.

“Aw! You haven’t even looked at the outfit yet?” Asmo said, popping back in the room dressed in a similar uniform to Beel. _How did he change so fast,_ she thought as she turned to look at him, “After Beel and I spent so much time picking it out?”

“You picked it out too?” She looked down at Beel, who nodded like a happy puppy as she continued to rustle her hands through his hair, “And Asmo, you’re joining us?”

“Don’t even think for a second you are keeping me away from one of the most beautiful, gorgeous sports in the world,” he raised his arms gently through the air as he began to walk, and then turned his head perfectly in time with him lowering them as he reached the bar, “I’ve had many centuries to experiment with the fine arts, but, I will let you be the instructor today, Miss Poland.”

He mocked a curtsy, and she giggled again.

“Now, come on! Take that sweater off and look at what we bought you! I want to know if you even like it, because if not, I have several other options in my bag you can switch too.”

“I want to see it too,” Beel confessed, standing up. And a small blush spread across Poland’s face as she heard the sincerity in her voice.

“Alright then,” she said, gliding forward closer to the mirrors in front of them all, “Here it goes.”

She was a little nervous about taking the sweater off in front of the two of them, but she was excited to see what she was wearing. She could already see that Asmo had done her up in light makeup and tied her hair into a beautifully curled ponytail, rather than a bun. He had made her forgo a wig for the day, but she supposed her normal hair wasn’t too bad, not when it looked like this.

The sweater went up, and her head popped out the other side as it went over her head. She was left staring back at herself, finished off with a haltered turquoise leotard that had a cherry blossom print running up the torso of it. Sewn into the waist of the leotard was a short, sheer half skirt that was beaded with little stones that sparkled as she turned.

She did a pirouette in the dress and Beel had to catch her as she nearly tumbled over.

“Oh I love it! It’s wonderful! But you didn’t have to!” She whined.

Beel held her with his hands on her biceps and leaned over to look her in the eye, “No, we didn’t, but we wanted to. We wanted to make you happy.”

“Thank you,” she said, sincerely, “I love it so much.”

“Are you happy?”

“Yes, I’m happy!”

“Good.”

“I’m to see the both of you are happy,” Asmo said, “but I believe I was promised a work out? Let’s get to work you two!”

Beel followed MC as she skittered over to the bar. She took her place in front of Asmo and they all faced the same way as she waited for the next song to start, and then began to lead them through the warm-ups she remembered.

* * *

A few days later, some demons were walking down the sidewalk nearby the House of Lamentation when they saw two strange moving figures in the moonlight.

“Hey, what’s that?” One of them nudged the other.

“What?”

_“That._ Look, it’s getting closer.”

They both squinted towards the shadows that were coming out from under a streetlight, their bodies moving in sync as they ran forward with their hands precisely stretched out in front of them, their legs moving quickly as if they were beating together before they leapt into the air, illuminating themselves in the streetlight, before they landed, and turned and spun back into the darkness.

They faded away down the street, the soft footsteps of the human and the tall demon eventually giving way to another leap through a streetlight’s glow before disappearing again.

“What the fuck?”

“I don’t know, man. Let’s get out of here already. I’m scared.”

As the two scampered off, Beel grabbed Poland around the waist, and lifted her into the air, their giggling filling the night air as they continued to dance through the dark.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! I have a few more ideas planned for this series, but I just recently finished lesson 20 of Obey Me (after six months of having the game, can you believe it), so if anything I write doesn't seem to follow any new story developments, I hope you'll be understanding. In regards to something I mentioned in the notes on my last installment for this series, I've decided to keep that "longer idea" for a generic MC, but with female pronouns. Maybe if I find the story isn't working well enough with a generic one, I'll switch it at the last minute into this series, but most likely it will be published as a separate work. Anyway, if you liked this series and are curious for what's to come next: I've been thinking about writing the brothers chaperoning Poland and Levi at a cosplay convention, Poland running into Belphie and Lucifer while working at Ristorante Six, and maybe a drabble working the surprise guest mechanics into more of the story? We'll have to see!


End file.
